made christmas ornaments that smell good
Great as a gift or to make your home ready for the holidays.
Materials:
Crochet hook, 5mm. Yarn in holiday colours, sparkle is good too. Scissors
potpourri (bought or homemade). Cotton balls or polyfill stuffing
Part 1: See my post on homemade Potpourri
Store in a tupperware until the balls are ready to be stuffed.
Part 2: The ball
**If you are new to crochet try a granny square first
Crochet Pattern: Sphere
Pattern taken from http://www.crochetspot.com/how-to-crochet-a-sphere/ and adapted.
Terminology: ch- chain, sc- single crochet, decrease- sc skipping over one stitch
**use sheet bend knots to switch to a new colour after every 2 rounds.
Round 1: ch 2, 6 sc in second ch from hook: Row should be a total of 6 sc
Round 2: 2 sc in each sc around: total 12 sc
Round 3: (2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc) around: 18 sc
Round 4: (2 sc in next sc, sc in next 2 sc) around: 24 sc
Round 5: (2 sc in next sc, sc in next 3 sc) around: 30 sc
Round 6: (2 sc in next sc, sc in next 4 sc) around: 36 sc
Note: to increase the size of the sphere, continue to increase this circle.
Round 7– 11: sc in each sc around: 36 sc
Note: rounds 7 – 11 make the body of the sphere. In general, the number of rounds to make the body should be the number of rounds completed thus far minus one. For example, there are five rounds before round 6 in this pattern. Therefore, there are four repetitions of the above line. The amount of repetitions for a different sized sphere also depends on a crocheter’s style. Some crochet tighter than others.
Round 12: (decrease, sc in next 4 sc) around: 30 sc, aka sc 5 in a row then skip one and repeat.
Round 13: (decrease, sc in next 3 sc) around: 24 sc, aka sc 4 in a row then skip one and repeat.
Round 14: (decrease, sc in next 2 sc) around: 18 sc
Round 15: (decrease, sc in next sc) around: 12 sc
Stuff sphere as full as possible with potpourri
Round 16: decrease around: 6 sc
Note: if you increased the size of the sphere you will also need to decrease the sphere as much as you increased it by.
Green Snowflakes
A great idea to save our oceans and decorate for the holidays!
http://twitter.com/#!/AquariumPacific/status/144164650571927552
Granny Tcherkezoff’s Shortbread
I decided to make my Granny’s short bread recipe and it turned out quite well despite a couple of mess-ups on my part
Ingredients: 1/2lb (1 1/8c.) Berry Sugar, 2lb (4 1/4 c.) Flour, 1lb Butter, Pinch of Salt
Makes >48 small cookies
Directions:
Cream butter, add sugar.
Add 3/4 flour, add rest of flour on a pastry board I missed this step, didn’t pay attention. Despite the fact that I messed it up they turned out yummy, the pastry board would make it flakier in texture.
Take a plastic freezer bag or Ziploc,put your ball of dough inside, leaving the bag open roll the dough flat, pushing into edges of the bag, the dough doesn’t stick to the roller or your cutting/bread board, no extra flour needed!
This was genius it worked so well I am going to use it for my sugar cookies from now on. Choosing a bag type: Ziplocs are good if you want to keep the dough for an extended period of time refrigerated (2 days max) or in the freezer (months). Since freezer bags are cheaper (I think?) and I was not storing my dough, the zipper was not necessary.
Once flattened it will look like this:
Avoid cracked edges by folding lumps back in and re-rolling.
Put the flattened dough in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
Remove from fridge and place on bread board, cut 2 edges of the bag then peel back the top layer of plastic and start punching out shapes with the cookie cutter of your choice. The shapes will peal easily off the plastic underneath and keeping the dough chilled helps them keep their shape.
Place shapes onto baking sheet and bake for 10-20 minutes at 300-320*F. I have estimated the temperature/time here because every oven heats differently. Watch your first batch closely to gauge your oven temp and timing. They should come out when the tops and edges are still pale and white and the very bottoms are slightly golden. (photo of overdone cookies)
Let cool, then place in a cookie tin or Tupperware.
The nice thing about this recipe is that these cookies age really well according to my mom, perfect for holiday baking that you can enjoy when you don’t have time to bake.
To age them I popped them in an old cookie tin with wax paper on the bottom to catch the crumbs.
Enjoy your holiday baking!